Really slow on the uptake

By Jeff Foust on 2008 October 31 at 7:24 pm ET

Remember when I complained back in late August that the AP was still claiming that Barack Obama would delay Constellation by five years if elected, although early that month he made it unequivocally clear he would not? (Whether he’ll follow through on that pledge, of course, is a different manner, but one beyond the scope of this post.) At the time it seemed a little embarrassing: you’d expect the AP to know better, but then again, space is a relatively minor policy issue. By now, though, one assumes everyone is clear what his campaign’s official stance is—except for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, it seems, talking about Obama’s education plan:

Obama would pay for his plan by ending corporate tax deductions for CEO pay and delaying NASA’s moon and Mars missions.

It looks like the Star-Tribune is simply running the AP issues comparison piece from August (there’s only a vague “News Services” credit near the end), although the piece does begin “As both campaigns enter the final days before the Nov. 4 election…”

[…] Meanwhile, in the “Parker vs. Parker” race to succeed Congressman Bud Cramer in Alabama’s 5th District, which includes Huntsville, Republican Wayne Parker and Democrat Parker Griffith each have op-eds in today’s Huntsville Times. Parker Griffith states that he is “ready to fight for our NASA, Missile Defense, Army and Intelligence jobs” and that, if elected, will align himself with conservative “Blue Dog Democrats” in the House “as I work for our NASA and defense programs.” Wayne Parker lashes out at ads that have claimed that he would cut funding for NASA and other popular programs in the area: “I do not support cutting jobs at Redstone Arsenal, NASA or TVA.” He also takes a moment to criticize the Democratic presidential candidate: “Obama has stated that he will cut tens of billions of dollars from ‘unproven’ missile defense systems and that he will not weaponize space. He has even proposed postponing NASA’s Constellation program by five years.” On that last point, it appears Wayne Parker is getting his information from that leading news source in northern Alabama, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. […]